“Not if you have an organization,” he said. “We have an organization that’s ready to go. We hope to have a couple of thousand people on the streets, in the precincts, getting the voters out.”

Chico told voters at a CTA station that he is running because the “status quo needs to be wrestled to the ground.” Reminded by a reporter that he has been closely aligned throughout his career to the chief of that status quo, Mayor Daley, he suggested he is still attempting to define a new era.

“I still consider him my friend, but that doesn’t mean this is working for the people in the City of Chicago,” he said. “We lost 200,000 people over the last 10 years. What happened? People are not happy with their schools right now. People are demanding change.”